I’m not allowed to own a weapon in the Philippines since I’m not a citizen. Same with property. Not that it matters, if I don’t like it, I’ll just leave. There has been a whole lot of shaking going on around here of late:
Otherwise, life goes on pretty much as it always does. My big accomplishment yesterday was making the climb up to the Kalaklan Ridge, something I hadn’t done for a while. I chose the easiest route I knew, but we were stymied by a newly constructed fence blocking our path. So we made a new way up that was steeper, but shorter. So, it all worked out. It was great to be on top of my world once again.
It was good to get some elevation on a hike again. Speaking of getting high, Swan came along for my beer o’clock trek to Barretto. We had a pre-dinner drink at the seldom-visited Hangout Bar, then moved on to Mango’s for dinner.
After our meal, we ventured up the highway to Queen Victoria for our nightcap.
I had a nice chat with the manager at Queen Victoria, and we talked about some of the current issues around town, including the demise of the SOB. The final show is now slated for Halloween night. Queen Victoria also participates in a monthly event with Red Bar and Thumbstar called “The Battle of the Bars.” They are looking to expand the number of participants, and it may one day be what the SOB no longer is. I intend to check out the next battle later this month.
On to June 2014 in the LTG archives. In a post called “Ebb and Flow,” I wrote about the changes taking place in the Itaewon bar scene as the old familiar faces left and were replaced with new ones. It was definitely a transient lifestyle back in those days. I got a chuckle out of this line in my post: “I can’t help but wonder how much longer I can live the lifestyle I’ve come to know and love. Somehow I don’t see myself climbing those notorious steps up to the bar (and drunkenly navigating my way back down) in another ten years when I’m pushing 70.” And yet, here I am still climbing the stairs to bars in Barretto. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
At least I’m not in jail. In today’s YouTube video, the Filipina Pea talks about the trouble a vindictive Filipina can cause an expat if she feels he’s done her wrong. It reminded me of how I came to discover Barretto. Back in my tourist days, I had rented an AC bargirl for a night of debauchery. We went out for dinner and a show, but when we got back to the room, she didn’t want to do the deed I’d paid for. So, I told her to leave. She said, “What about my tip?” I responded that she hadn’t earned a tip. Then she picked up the phone and said, “I’ll call the police and say you took advantage of me.” I called her bluff, and she left. Later, I posted on one of the nightlife forums about what happened, named her and the bar, and warned others not to waste their money. Well, her boss saw my post and fired her. Then my phone blew up with messages about how I ruined her life and she was going to make me pay for what I did. I had images of cops breaking down my door or maybe getting shot by helmeted riders on a motorbike. So, I checked out of my hotel and caught a taxi to Barretto. I wound up liking it a lot more than AC, and the rest is history.
Humor time:
Speaking of changing things up, we have alternative plans for Sunday, so we will do our Sunday routines today. So, I’ve got the Hideaway feeding, dinner at John’s place, and some beverage consumption at Red Bar and Jumpin’ Jacks on the horizon. Ain’t life grand?
(second try… bad HTML tag)
Not that it matters, if I don’t like it, I’ll just leave.
There are several ways to correct the above.
Not that it matters. If I don’t like it, I’ll just leave.
Not that it matters: If I don’t like it, I’ll just leave.
Not that it matters—if I don’t like it, I’ll just leave.
Not that it matters; if I don’t like it, I’ll just leave.
Not that it matters, but if I don’t like it, I’ll just leave.
AI seems confused on whether “Not that it matters” is an independent or a dependent clause. In the above examples, I’m obviously treating it as an independent clause, hence the period, the semicolon, the comma-conjunction, etc. I therefore feel free to contend that, functionally speaking, “Not that it matters” is an independent clause. AI can disagree if it wants to, but here’s proof that, in at least one instance, it admits that the phrase is an independent clause:
This sentence from the above—
—is totally false, an AI hallucination, not relevant to the correction at all. Watch out for AI bullshit. AI will lie without even knowing that it’s lying. “If I don’t like it” and “I’ll just leave” cannot be joined by a semicolon because “If I don’t like it” is a dependent clause. What can sport a semicolon is the (independent) clause “Not that it matters.” “If I don’t like it” and “I’ll just leave” are just fine being joined with that comma.
That’s why I’m bothering to provide you with answers to the question of how to correct the above: because it may not be obvious to laypeople or even to AI. I was going to smack you over the head for committing yet another comma splice, but the more closely I looked into the phrase “Not that it matters,” the more I realized that a nuanced discussion was necessary. So: no smack today.
And here’s another weird thing: even though “Not that it matters” is in the indicative mood (not to be discussed on my paid Substack until October 24), it also has one toe dipped in the subjunctive mood since there’s something hypothetical about saying “Not that it matters.” It’s a bit like saying, “This doesn’t really matter, but…” or “This wouldn’t matter anyway.” “Not that it matters” is truly a strange phrase the more that you think about it.
At least I’m not in jail.
Ah, the unsurprisingly sordid past. Find cheap women, get cheap results. Have you finally learned that lesson?
Kevin, thanks for that in-depth lesson. Not that it matters. 🙂 Of the correction options, I’d opt for the semicolon. Don’t ask me why; I just like the look of it somehow. I am resisting getting into the AI world, but I do find the opinions it expresses in response to your inquiries interesting to read. And best of all, I didn’t get smacked!
Yes, that’s a lesson learned the hard way. Although I suppose women of the night are expected to make things hard on you.
I don’t know what you mean by a “bad HTML tag,” but the original comment was in my moderation queue as well.
To create boldface and italic text in your comments, you have to use HTML tags. I had mistakenly paired the right open tag for boldface ([b], but with angled brackets) with the wrong closing tag ([/p]; it should’ve been [/b]), thus resulting in an entirely boldfaced paragraph.
With your comments window, you have to know some HTML if you want to be able to format text (bold, italics, underline), add links, do blockquotes, etc. There are no buttons for us peasants.
Kevin, Ah, I see. Yes, I have the buttons, and I assumed my commenters did too. But on your blog, there are no easy shortcuts to comment, so I just don’t get bold there. 🙂
Basic HTML is easy enough. You have to use open and closing tags that surround the text they affect. The tags are placed inside angled brackets, also called French brackets or French quotes, but not doubled up. My comments on my blog, just like on your blog, use basic HTML. Just surround your text with the open and closing tags. I’ll show you, but with square brackets instead so the code remains visible when this comment is published:
[b]bold[/b]
[i]italics[/i]
[u]underline[/u]
[s]
strikethru[/s]For links, if your text is “fart,” and you’re linking to your favorite fart site, the tags look like this:
[a href=”https://fartsite.com”]fart[/a]
And that’s it. That’s all the HTML that most normal people need. Easy. Try to learn it. Just remember to use angled brackets.